THE addition of Limousin genetics to the Williams family's Angus herd has bolstered their carcase yields to an impressive benchmark of 59 per cent.
For James Williams and his parents Peter and Anne, the decision to switch to a crossbreeding venture was made after seeing Angus/Limousin progeny prosper in a feedlot.
When the Williams family bought their property "Billabong", a 270-hectare holding near Mulwala, in 1993, they focused on breeding Angus cattle, cropping and sheep.
Since then the enterprise has grown to consist of five properties totalling just under 2400ha that have been modernised to comprise 16 pivot irrigators and a 999-head feedlot.
The original mixed farming structure of crops, cattle and sheep remains, but is now run at 65pc cropping and 35pc livestock - in the past it had been as high as a 50:50 split.
In March this year "Billabong" was hit by a tornado which damaged its feedlot, destroyed a house, woolshed, centre pivot and other infrastructure on the property.
The timing of the tornado meant the Williamses had to focus their efforts on sowing, which had slowed the progress of their new feedlot construction.
The tornado's aftermath coupled with the dry autumn led the Williamses to take stock of their herd and cull 80 breeders from their 400-head herd.
"This allowed us to put more country into crops and take advantage of strong commodity prices, as well as clean up some pasture paddocks with compaction issues," James Williams said.
It was Mr Williams who suggested they add Limousin bulls to the Angus herd when he returned to the farm from university in 2007 and noticed the benefit of having high yielding carcase cattle in the saleyards.
"The market was really telling us there was a premium there for the better quality, high yielding cattle," Mr Williams said.
He said he pushed to have the feedlot established on-property as he enjoyed buying and selling stock regularly, as well as seeing an animal completely change after 60 to 80 days on feed.
The introduction of the feedlot and Limousin genetics had allowed them to breed and finish their Angus/Limousin calves in 12 months and reach a target weight of 450 kilograms.
Mr Williams said they received an extra $60 to $100 a head above the traditional Angus breed as they generally received a 20 cents a kilogram premium above the straight black progeny due to the crossbred progeny's higher carcase yielding ability.
He said they have had Angus/Limousin calves yield as high as 65pc.
"My father was targeting the same market with the pure Angus around the 450kg for the domestic market, but the issue was we would have to keep the cattle on a lot longer to get to that weight," he said.
When they first looked into crossbreeding they considered the Charolais breed, however, they made the decision to introduce Limousin genetics based on feedback from a local feedlot.
"Our agent at the time had his own feedlot and he had a lot of breeds going through and the Limousin-cross cattle really showed that extra carcase yield, as well as returning the extra premium in the saleyards," Mr Williams said.
"People are prepared to pay a premium for Limo-cross calves as they know they can get up to 10pc extra carcase yield when compared to other breeds."
They have their current drop of calves at a Finley feedlot.
The Angus females are joined in October over a tight six-week period, with the bull to female ratio 1:35.
The breeders are pregnancy tested and are only given one chance as the Williamses see no value in carrying an empty cow.
Calving is from July to September with the aim to wean calves at six months old onto irrigated lucerne in late summer.
The calves are moved onto rye grass/clover paddocks in mid-April ahead of entry into the feedlot, with some grain feeders introduced for the transition period.
Mr Williams said the calves entered the feedlot at about 300kg this year, however, the ideal entry weight is 320kg to 350kg, as this reduced grain costs.
He said generally they tried to get the calves on the grain just after Anzac Day, so the paddocks were freed up for cropping.
In recent years, they had sold a third of the calves as vealers around 350kg to 380kg at nine to 10 months old - a method which maximised return, Mr Williams said.
However, he said seasonal conditions must be supportive of the vealer market option and were considered prior to weaning.
"We take into account the overall farm position with stocking rates and overall feed position and the condition of stock," Mr Williams said.
Last year, their mixed sex calves that were finished on grain had a carcase yield of 59pc over the hook and an average weight gain of 2.5kg/day.
The finished calves will either be sold through the Finley saleyards or direct to a Melbourne processor.
"We like to keep our options open depending on the market, but from July to September seems to be the best time to sell the calves, before the grass finishers have been able to finish their stock," Mr Williams said.
Generally, they buy 80 PTIC replacement heifers a year from reputable breeders.
As for the future, Mr Williams said their game plan was to increase their breeders back to 500 head, to allow them to fill half the feedlot with their own stock.
They plan to grow all components of the feed ration on property, as Mr Williams believed this would give them a marketing edge come sale time for their home grown cattle in the future.
He said the plan wasn't to run their feedlot at capacity all the time.
He said they could finish anywhere from their own calves to up to 3000 head of bought in cattle provided market conditions were supportive and profitable over a 12-month window.
"Our strategy is to stay flexible across the board as sheep, cattle and crop prices can fluctuate dramatically from year to year," Mr Williams said.
"We believe you need to be able to adapt quickly, and with water and irrigation we have the ability to cash in on market opportunities across livestock and crops - 'make hay while the sun shines' and 'lock up shop' when it's not profitable."
The Williamses also run 2000 SAMM and first-cross ewes, which are joined to Border Leicester and Poll Dorset rams respectively with their target the heavy export lamb market up to 32kg dressed with most lambs sold by nine to 10 months old to processor Swift at Cobram, Victoria.
Depending on the season, they also buy up to 1000 second-cross lambs a year to finish on lucerne.
This year they have 1400ha of crop sown primarily to wheat and canola, with a small portion of grazing wheat and oats available for stock feed.
